forced Jewish leaders to turn their syn- agogues and community centers into virtual fortresses. There are approXI- mately two hundred thousand Jews in Argentina-it is South Americàs larg- est Jewish community-and today, spurred by the worst economic crisis in the country's history, many are leaving for Israel. Twenty men have been on trial since late September of last year on charges related to the bombing, but these men- all of them Argentines-are considered by investigators to be secondary players in the attack. Alberto Nisman, one of the prosecutors, believes that the bomb- ing succeeded in part because of lax oversight by the Paraguayan and Brazil- ian governments; Argentine officials be- lieve that key participants in the attack entered Argentina through the Triple Frontier. VIctor Hermoza, the Para- guayan interior minister, was skeptical. "The bomb could have been built any- where," he said, adding that he does not beheve that Hezbollah maintains terror cells in Paraguay: But Hezbollah is so deeply rooted in the Triple Frontier that, one Paraguayan official said, he believes that the bomb was almost certainly built in the area of Ciudad del Este. "It's im- possible to believe that it wasn't," he said. "People were absolutely free here to do whatever they wanted." Argentine officials have openly ac- cused Iran of involvement in the bomb- ing, and they have accused Hezbollah of carrying it out (the court has identified the man believed to be the suicide bomber but his name has not yet been re- leased). Four of the defendants are police officers, who are accused of collaborating with the bombers. Charges that the po- lice force in Argentina harbors officers with anti-Semitic tendencies have circu- lated for years. The trial is being held in an Art Deco-style theatre in the basement of a courthouse near the harbor of Buenos Aires. Heavy mauve drapes cover the walls, and bulletproof glass separates the spectators from the defendants. On the day that I visited, early this year, the building was watched by snipers in flak jackets and police on horseback In the courtroom, a survi- vor of the bombing was describing what had happened when a white Re- naultvan holding a six-hundred-pound bomb was driven into the seven-story AMIA building-and the explosion sheared off its front. E arlier this year, it was disclosed that a man calling himself Abdolghassem Mesbahi, who claimed to be an Iranian intelligence official, had told investigators that former President Carlos Saul Menem of Argentina maintained close relations WIth Iran and took a ten-million-dollar bribe to cover up Iran's involvement in the bombing. Menem, who is of Syrian descent, has denied the charge. He hopes to run again for President. Lawyers for the Jewish community have used Mesbahi's testimony, along with information gathered in Argentina and abroad, to construct a time line of ac- tivities leading up to the bombing. The head lawyer, Marta Nercellas, described to me a plot that was set in motion at 4:30 P.M. on August 14, 1993, in a Tehran office belonging to the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence. According to the time line, the Ministry; with the in- volvement of the minister, A1i F allahian, asked a team made up of Lebanese Hezbollah operatives and its own agents, many of whom worked under diplomatic cover, to plan the attack. An important figure in the plot, ac- cording to Nercellas and other investiga- tors, was Mohsen Rabbani, an Iranian who was appointed to the Buenos Aires Embassy as a cultural attaché just a few months before the bombing. Rabbani, who was barred from Argentina after ev- idence of his involvement began to emerge, is believed to have been a few blocks away from the .AlvlIA building in the minutes before the attack. Alberto Nisman hopes that informa- tion will come out during testimony that will allow Argentine authorities to pursue the actual conspirators, including Rab- bani. But Nisman says that he is focussed on the man who they think orchestrated the bombing: Imad Mugniyah. Standing outside the courtroom during a recess, Nisman said, "Mugniyah would be the ultimate. That is our target." Not only Mugniyah has eluded cap- ture; so have his associates. Hamadi, the TW.A. hijacker believed by Carlson to have shot Robert Stethem, was captured several years ago in German)) and he is now in prison there, but Izz-al-Din is, like Mugniyah, thought to be in either Lebanon or Iran. The United States has come close to arresting Mugniyah at least twice. In 1985, American intelligence learned that Mugniyah was in Paris. According to Duane Clarridge, a former chief of the C.I.A.'s Counterterrorist Center, the French refused to help, apparently be- cause they were negotiating with Mug- niyah for the release of French hostages in Lebanon. Several years later, Ameri- '.- .\ - ) ----.. . . -r-" . .,-: . ". f J -' - . \ 1 r :J j r..I., . \ \ .: ) (, .< /(:0, '; \ . . / ^' I ..=.': ;. ,, " , . '. [Ct . - . - Ç-' ;: 1 ,\\ -..; .::)) I 'J' _: ((1':,,: 1 ì \(' -. II ..r , ' .".: ..;:-' Ú"f'i. j_,.\ \ /\ I /.r. : :>. r:::. ? () . f .:. 0. "\\ ().." f./ \ Ñ '/ I' .-", : ) ) 0 :-:. Y/ J '; 4:0l!i: i \ ':f; /:"'( \ ":":"'''' J \ r-> . ;'::. ' t l , ... J ,,"(. l ': ::'::'..,"'; r f. ". : . I' i;: '::::. ;'\. \ .' . /' '\ . .'.. . ,. I .' !( I.' I' I" . \..-:'... :: 1 ' --< I' . :"':...::: I .... "'\ I - , . '. / .: .::( ! , - 1J _ . / i:.:.'::..::' \::. .J }:::: -'. :. . (:,. ':'\ ' ;&R ' ,. . ". " '. ' ( '<\J.::::.:;) '. : > i <.} 1\\ ::I \ \;r::: Jii! ilii:l\- . ' '. '::. / :; :: .:: l.: : :.: : ! .: . '. . - ....,'.."..,:: i 4F' \::, :.::: 4: D - _ j " 'l \ ) \ I i ; H; i: .?' M"NK \ J' I ) : : " : := ' " L/I I i""'":' J:- "'''''' '' -J "" '\. . /1,',r'fo. : '':.j - t.... . i::6 .. ._ .9. . .. ... ".".. .... . , . . ' . . :: '.: :. '':'''. . . ...... .. -. . ..... ...... : ' ...... .. .... ... ." .' '.. - . . "Francophobe, meet Francophile. "